Divine Experiences
by SamCyberCat
Summary: The most divine thing that had happened to Ryo wasn’t any of the enemies he’d encountered from knowing Juudai. Ryo/Fubuki.


Notes – For the gx_100. Set post-GX, when Shou joins the Pro Leagues.

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"Have you ever experienced divinity?"

It was one of those random questions that Fubuki launched at him occasionally. He'd spend an hour jabbering on about some meaningless drivel then attack you were a question with some apparent depth just to make sure you were still listening. Ryo had a feeling Fubuki made a mental list of these questions when he was bored.

"That's not an easy one to answer," Ryo confessed, leaning forward for a better look at the duel, one hand resting on the side of his wheelchair.

The match was one involving his younger brother, so as Shou's manager Ryo was expected to be there, but it wasn't a particularly important duel so he could afford to let his mind wander enough to talk to Fubuki about such strange things. He had complete confidence in Shou's duelling ability anyway, no need to watch him like he was a child.

"It depends what you mean by both experience and divinity," he went on, throwing the ball of pretending to be deep back into Fubuki's court.

"Experience should be obvious enough, something that's happened to you, something you've thought you've felt, that kind of stuff," said Fubuki, eyes also on the match, "But I'll be lenient on divinity, anything you've felt that seemed almost otherworldly, more than human, and so on. If you say nothing than I'll know you're lying."

That was true enough. As being students connected to Juudai Yuki they'd both experienced a good deal of inhuman stuff. Be it the essence of Darkness itself using Fubuki as a host, a vampire duelling Ryo, an evil light from out of space trying to control the minds of people they knew, then being sent to two other worlds less than a week apart from each other, plenty of things had happened to both of them. In hindsight there had been a lot of aliens.

"I could list it all, but that would be a waste of time," Ryo muttered, "You know all of it, I know all of it. If one of us hadn't been involved the other had been and if neither of us were around then it directly came back to someone we knew. We've all experienced a lot."

Tearing his face away from the Giant Rat that Shou's opponent was summoning Fubuki looked at Ryo. As an individual connected to Juudai, Ryo hadn't particularly got involved with as many supernatural events as other people had. When Ryo got involved with something it was by his own choice, and when it wasn't he moulded the situation into his own. Fubuki knew that Ryo didn't oppose the notion of divine creatures and the like being out there, he just wasn't largely concerned with them. When a creature of shadows waved a duel deck in front of him and challenged him, that would be when Ryo paid attention to it.

"But out of the lot of them, what's hit you the hardest," he asked, not coming up with a clear answer to that in his mental picture of Ryo.

"That is not such a difficult question," Ryo answered, closing his eyes and smiling, "It is clear what has affected me the most."

"Not so clear to me," murmured Fubuki, still watching him.

"You've distorted the meaning of a divine experience too much," said Ryo, "An epiphany shouldn't be as broad as any dangerous being that's attacked us over the years. A divine person should be someone who's affected my life in a way that I wouldn't be the same without, but that doesn't have to be a negative way."

"And who would that be?" Fubuki asked.

"Do I really need to answer that?"

They both looked to the arena together. Shou had just launched the final attack on his opponent's life points, the counter hit zero and the crowd erupted into cheers. Then Shou, as someone who had learned to respect his opponents, went over to the duellist who had lost so they could both shake hands. There were no hard feelings over a friendly duel.

"Without Shou I wouldn't be where I am today. And I don't mean in this wheelchair," Ryo added, before Fubuki could start any sarcasm, "I did that to myself. He showed me what it was to be a true duellist when I had trailed down a another path. We both have different methods but we walk towards the same goal. We support each other, and he took my pain away from me."

"Cute," said Fubuki, who couldn't resist a quick poke of fun at Ryo's emotional side, "I'm sure he feels the same way."

"I need him more than he needs me, regardless of how he sees it," Ryo said confidently, still watching his brother as the younger boy smiled awkwardly for some photographers.

"I think you need each other about the same," answered Fubuki, looking from one to the other, "But enough deep talking. That duel lasted so long that the most divine experience I could have right now would be with a plate of gyoza. You want to grab Shou so we can head out for something to eat? I don't mind paying."

So much for depth. But Ryo preferred it that way. He wasn't one to dwell on the past for too long, so Fubuki's bursts of random interest were long enough for him to handle before something else undoubtedly distracted his friend.

Fubuki got to his feet and started pushing the wheelchair towards Shou, who waved when he noticed them both.

None of them doubted that Juudai was out somewhere having adventures like none of them had ever imagined before.

But for them, and for all who had known Juudai, the real divine experiences were centred on suddenly having very real lives to deal with. Which Ryo, Fubuki and Shou would be getting back to, right after lunch.


End file.
